[POLL] Ranged Vs. Siege: Your Preference?

[Anarcomu]

Got an idea some time ago
Change how siege units performs :

• All siege units have 1movement.
• All siege units (maybe with the exception of catapult) start with 3range instead of two. Artillery get 4 range.
• Their ranged strength is increased across the board, but their melee strength is reduced.
• Maybe increase their malus against land units ?

 

[Anarcomu]

This way they become better at maintaining siege against cities ; however they can't retreat fast, and can easily be crushed by cavalry if not protected.

 

[Rosete]

Ranged is anti unit. Siege is anti city. You can to beat AI carpet? Get ranged units. You want to crack open a city? Get some seige. The balance is good right now and I don't think any change is necessary.

Personally, I use ranged exclusively for defense. They have good defense and solid damage to shoo away attacking forces. My attacking army consists of a carpet of mele and 8-10 siege units. I used siege to soften their front before smashing them with my mele.

 

[Zanteogo]

I find ranged units one of the weakest units line overall, they have a use, but tend to become worse and worse as they game goes on.

Siege units however start off as just ok, and a way to take out walled cities early on, to probably the best unit in the game. They get increased range promotions that get baked in on creation after a certain point, often meaning they can attack from friendly territory.

I'm ok leaving them as they are. My only real issue is that the city damage increase promotion line is just the obvious choice for siege units.

 

[Zanteogo]

Got an idea some time ago
Change how siege units performs :

• All siege units have 1movement.
• All siege units (maybe with the exception of catapult) start with 3range instead of two. Artillery get 4 range.
• Their ranged strength is increased across the board, but their melee strength is reduced.
• Maybe increase their malus against land units ?

I would probably leave them as they are, with maybe a smaller change, as they are pretty balanced overall.

However, to address your suggestion directly, the 1 movement would pretty much remove siege units from most gameplay past a certain point. Late game larger maps for example would be near impossible to get them anywhere useful most of the time.

Siege units already get ranged bonus baked in mid game.

They usually get taken out with a single melee attack as it stands now, if they live they are reduced to 10 or so hit points, giving them more melee weakness wouldn't actually change much.

 

[Mightybrain1000]

I would probably leave them as they are, with maybe a smaller change, as they are pretty balanced overall.

However, to address your suggestion directly, the 1 movement would pretty much remove siege units from most gameplay past a certain point. Late game larger maps for example would be near impossible to get them anywhere useful most of the time.

Siege units already get ranged bonus baked in mid game.

They usually get taken out with a single melee attack as it stands now, if they live they are reduced to 10 or so hit points, giving them more melee weakness wouldn't actually change much.

What about an Age of Empires trebuchet-inspired solution? Siege units have regular movement on enemy territory, but require 1 turn of setup to attack? Maybe add Cover II for balancing?

 

[Stalker0]

Got an idea some time ago
Change how siege units performs :

• All siege units have 1movement.
• All siege units (maybe with the exception of catapult) start with 3range instead of two. Artillery get 4 range.
• Their ranged strength is increased across the board, but their melee strength is reduced.
• Maybe increase their malus against land units ?

Range is completely unbalanced unfortunately. A range 3 siege in human hands would be nigh invincible in the early game, as you can just put up forces in front of it, and the siege could hit a city completely immune from attacks.

Even now, its questionable if the AI can really handle the arrival of Range 3 artillery and range 3 cities as well as humans do.

 

[N.Core]

What about an Age of Empires trebuchet-inspired solution? Siege units have regular movement on enemy territory, but require 1 turn of setup to attack? Maybe add Cover II for balancing?

That's basically the vanilla method of siege unit. The reason why VP changed this is because AI can't use it well.